Inexpensive Hair Coloring

I have not blogged in quite a while. Been super busy lately. Busy at work and playing quite a bit of golf and not really getting much better.  Blah. Shooting about 100 on most days. Me and my pitching wedge are at odds lately.

Hayley gets only one week off this summer, so I decided to  taking her to Fort Lauderdale for her break. I have never been to that side of Florida, but it was very inexpensive...well at least for airfair and hotel...the rest is yet to be seen. We may do an airboat tour, and a tour of the Intracoastal Waterway mansions.....depending on how we feel. We may lay on the beach with books. Hayley is easy going and spontaneous. We travel well together, so really looking forward to this trip.

Hayley has been coloring my hair for free for the past 6 months while in school at Aveda. She has done a really great job. Anyway, the 'free' part stops now. She has been there long enought that she can take appointments now. So if anyone, wants to book with her, please get in touch with me and I'll give you her information. Aveda is in Dallas off of 75 and Park. Half head highlights are $44, full is $50. Here is the full price list. 

Aveda Student Prices

She loves to color hair and is ready to do anyone we know. However, she has informed me that she wants to practice cutting hair on complete strangers.  I asked her to texturize my hair for me recently and she said if I had seen her mannequin after she tried texturizing, I would not have asked. Honesty is one of her endearing qualities.

It is amazing how many people go to Aveda Institute and get their hair done the day of their wedding. Hello, it is a school. 

I hope everyone is having a great summer. The weather has been pretty mild and just plain awesome.

2011 Camaro Review

In December I bought my car, Snowflake, off of a sheet of ice. I traded in my BMW Z4. I'd like to talk about the pros and cons of the Camaro SS.

Figures that my car pic has Nick in it and not me.

Snowflake is beautiful and so was the Z4. One of my favorites features of both cars is the heated seats. You can almost drive top down in any weather if your bootie is warm. I  now have a backseat which would be perfect for a gym bag, but I quit the gym. Not big enough for people, but works for golf clubs, laptops, etc.

I love the Heads Up display in the Camaro. I love the speed and the little growl it gives you when you start it up. The Cons: It is clunky and drinks gas like an alcoholic drinks free vodka. The visors are tiny. Never thought I'd have a complaint about a visor, but it is the worst sun visor ever. There is some kind of cover thingy to use when the top is down, but it looks like it is going to fly off so I don't use it.

I was visiting Hayley recently. We were going to lunch on Greenville. Hayley tells me I need to "Bust a Bitch".....aka do a u-turn. Well, the Camaro does not whip around like a Z4. I had to pull into a parking lot, turn around, and then go back out. I need several lanes to bust a bitch these days.

I STILL can't park and it's been four months now.  When the kids were little I had a string of SUVs. I don't understand why I cannot park this car.  Every day I pull into my parking spot. I open the door and look out to see where the line is. Then, I shut the door, put it in reverse and straighten myself back out. Nick laughs at my parking most days at the house.

With that being said, I love the car and get compliments on how pretty it is weekly. The commute from Arlington is killing me. I have a small dent already (????) and I already have a chip in the windshield. For some reason, it doesn't matter how far out in a parking lot I park, I will come back out of a store or restaurant and will be surrounded by big white pick up trucks. Urgh.

So Nick and I are going to the Meacum auction in Houston this week. Look for us on TV.

Thursday April 10
Esquire: 11:30 AM - 3:00 PM Live
NBCSN: 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM Live
MECUM.COM: 6:35 PM - 7:00 PM Live

Friday April 11
Esquire: 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM Live
NBCSN: 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Live
MECUM.COM: 6:10 PM - 7:00 PM 

Summer is coming. Getting ready for some golf.

Feline Leukemia In Rememberance of Billie Jean

Hayley got a new kitten the same month Michael Jackson died and she decided to name her Billie Jean. She's the gray kittie in the picture. Peaches is the orange cat. 

Hayley took BJ to the vet for her shots and the vet told her BJ had feline leukemia and needed to be put down immediately. Hayley frantically called me crying. I told her that we would think about it and keep Billie Jean until she started feeling bad. We thought she wouldn't make it too long, but we wanted to make her happy while she was healthy.

The vet had a digital picture frame for client pet pictures. Billie Jean's photo was of her wearing a spiked collar, claws out, and yowling. We would laugh every time we saw it. 

Billie Jean almost made it 5 years. She was not the friendliest cat, but she liked Hayley. BJ had a great life til the end. She had many dog friends that she played with over the years.

Hayley said she was going to get a new kitten after putting BJ down. In the meantime, she borrowed Peaches for a few days. I asked her this week about getting another cat. She said she "I can envision myself never cleaning a litter box again". So today, she said she's going to the animal shelter "Just to look". 

Billie Jean is missed.

Aveda Cosmetology School

So Hayley tells me she needs a 'model'. In reality, she needs a guinea pig to practice her hair stuff. A couple of weeks ago, I went in for a shampoo, conditioner, and blow dry. These are my before and after pictures. So how does this happen? According, to Hayley a boar's brush is key to smooth hair along with Aveda Smooth Infusion Style Prep.

So I'm going to "model" the next two weeks. After Saturday, I'm going to be a brunette for an entire week. Not too happy about that since it is time for my summer blonde. But, next weekend, I get a partial head coloring and will have blonde highlights. I've warned my coworkers in advance that my look will be changing weekly. 

So the crying and wanting to quit school has finally stopped. Hayley was not quite fitting in with some of the girls. FYI, Aveda is a stone's throw away from Highland Park. Frisco is a little uppity, but it is primarly Californians who sold their homes and could afford the so-called Texas McMansions----cookie cutter, but good-sized homes. Highland Park is wealth. No comparison.

She has since found her clique. They call themselves "the funny group that can't stand anyone else". Well alrighty then. As long as she stays in school, I'm good. Today, I tried to call her on her lunch break, but she was too busy "going to Chipotle with the girls".

Many people have asked if Hayley likes doing hair. Below are assorted pictures of Hayley's hair in the past year or two. Sometimes I don't recognize her myself. Sometimes people say she looks a lot like me....well that depends on the day.

This Texas weather has been horrible. Well maybe not horrible, but the weatherman told me it was going to be 70 today. I drove the convertible and put on high heel wedge sandals. Guess what? It is not convertible or sandal weather. I've since donned a UT hoodie over my work clothes and my toes are cold. Very professional....NOT.

I hope all my buddies with children enjoy spring break!

So I have been out of my house a couple of months now. It was funny, but the last time, I ran into my former neighbor, he said he was wondering what happened. He said "you were just gone". He thought maybe we packed up and moved in the middle of the night for some mysterious reason. Everything did happen suddenly, but it happned at 10am on a Sunday.

Fire Phil the Groundhog

I haven't blogged much lately. Not much going on in this cold, cold, Texas winter. I would officially like to fire Phil the groundhog. I am not enjoying our extra 6 weeks of cold weather. I'm ready to put the top down on my car and play golf. I had a sad moment today. I opened the passenger door to put some stuff in the front seat and I saw a golf towel and a cute pair of my flip flops in the back seat. Oh, how I miss Texas summers.


My renters put this cute Texas star above my garage in Frisco. They also put a new lamp on the front porch and cute chairs out front. I wish I would have thought of the star. Sigh.

So Hayley has almost quit Aveda hair school twice now, but then she calls hours later all excited about something at school.  She has been exhausted, but her frantic, crying phone calls are wearing me out. She has been working 39 hours a week and going to school 33 hours a week and to top it off, she got strep throat last week. And even though the clinic was right down the street from her apartment, she asked me to take her. I'm glad I could help. It's funny how 19-year olds turn 10 when they are sick....much like sick men. I took her to the doctor, picked her up some lunch, waited to pick up her prescriptions while we browsed the As-Seen-On-TV-aisle, and sent her home to bed.

She is very headstrong and wants to support herself; however, I have finally convinced her to cut her hours and let me help her out. School is only 12 months and we are almost a month down. So she took me up on the offer and will cut her hours starting in March back to 21 hours a week. I meant take Sundays off. I didn't mean cut her hours in half. Oh well, we will manage. Here she is with her lavendar hair. This was two weeks ago. This week she is blonde again.

So this coming Saturday, I'm going to be her model at school. Model doesn't mean you are gorgeous. In this case, it means that you are the only person to agree to put your hair into the hands of a student. I get a hand massage, shampoo with head massage, conditioner and then I get my hair blow dryed and styled. She was also able to buy me some new Aveda products at 50% off. Yippee. She said she also learned how to use a round brush to make your hair soft. Bring it on!

So Madi cheered her last ever Colt game, but that also means that graduation and new things are coming her way soon. These are exciting times for our girls. We love these girls of ours, but they also make us quite crazy at times. I guess that is just part of it. I'm sure we drive them crazy too.

Hayley's Quote of the Day

Hayley has only been moved out for three weeks, but she already seems more mature. Yesterday, she called to tell me that she had made her first grown-up executive decision. My mind was racing as I was pondering what important decision she had made. I don't know why I wasted brain cells on this. She made the decision to take her umbrella with her and the great decision paid off because it was raining when she got off work. 

I would think the fact that she went apartment shopping on her own and picked out her own apartment might have been more of an executive decision than the umbrella, but that's just me.

Hayley had the day off so she met me for sushi lunch. She was talking about some kids that her friend at work is trying to help out and how immature they were. Her quote of the day "If you are old enough to be tried as an adult, you are old enough to act like an adult". Well said.

She has been without cable and Internet for three weeks which is why she spent eight hours with us watching her tablet this past weekend. Nick felt bad for her and he ordered Internet for her and added it to his bill. Today, a package showed up at her apartment complex addressed to Nicholas with her address and this confused the mail room guys. Hayley told them that it was for her because "Nick had bought her the Internet". She was so excited when she called me. She told me she's not going to leave her apartment all weekend long. Unfortunately, for her, while the wireless modem is working, AT&T said the Internet will not be activated until 8pm tonight. She decided to nap until 8pm.

I'm currently a landlord again. It's always a crapshoot, but Joel Olsteen told me this week to change my mindset from the skinny goat to the fat cow....or something like that. Anyway, I think he meant expect more and have a positive attitude, so yeah that.

My neighbors are used to seeing Zena,my Rottie/Lab mix, in the yard. As of next week, they will be seeing Zepplin, a Collie/Lab mix, in the yard.

Almost Back to Normal and Broke Toilets

December was a super busy month. I traded cars. Hayley got moved out to her new apartment. I moved to Arlington. I did all my Xmas shopping on the 23rd. Found a handy man to fix up my house and got it listed for lease, and then followed all this up with a golf trip to Pensacola.  So back to 'real life' now.

Things found in an Exxon truck stop.

I have a new home, added some new family members, and a new gym. I also named the new car..... Snowflake. The car is white and I test drove it off a big slab of ice so this seems appropriate. Now, I need the weather to cooperate so I can put the top down. 

This weekend, I finally visited Hayley's apartment after 3 weeks of her living there. I'm shocked. It is clean and cute. I can't believe it. She was such a slob when she lived at my house. Figures.

Paradise Grill Polar Plunge 2014

So now back to cooking, focusing on work, and going to the gym. So I move in with Nick and he's had the same washing machine for 15 years. I put in my first load and the machine quits working. So we got a new washing machine for Xmas. Yawn. Well that and a golf trip to Pensacola...woohoo. 

Balcony View at Holiday Inn Resort

So on a new subject of leasing homes. My coworker said she didn't understand how one of her tenants broke a toilet. Well that brought back broke toilet memories.

Toilet 1: So back in 1994 (I remember the year because I was pregnant with Hayley), I wake up and hear water....sounds like a small babbling brook. My ex-step-son was 12 and was visiting. I thought maybe he was peeing in a closet or something by mistake. I guess pregnancy made me looney. Anyway, I got up and went to the bathroom and my feet splash on the floor. I turn on the light and I cannot see where this water is coming from. Finally, I spot what looks like a hair on the back of the commode. All that water from a small hairline crack. I turned off water and sopped it up with towels. Well, that afternoon, I come home from work and notice a shadow on the ceiling above my dining room. Oopsie. Had to file insurance for that one.

Toilet 2: I had just put a pool in at my old house. Obviously a man designed my house...hence the bathroom in the kitchen. However, it was convenient with the pool because you could walk in the back door from the pool right to my kitchen bathroom. So I come in from pool to use the bathroom. This in itself is odd as I often just peed in my own pool. I must have had company that day:)  I went back outside to swim. I come in the house an hour later and my kitchen is flooded. The ceramic had completely broken into pieces around the hinge that holds the toilet to the floor. I did not file insurance, but pulled up all my flooring and stained the concrete a nice terracota color. It looked like the patios of Mexican restaurants. Made me crave margaritas all the time.

Toilet 3: Next house with pool. I had friends over. One of my girlfriend comes in from pool to use the half bath. She slips on the ceramic tile and lands on the toilet and it just breaks into small pieces. That was pretty funny. Caught that one right away so no water damage.